It’s a little early for Halloween yet, but it is creeping up. I’ve been getting ready by drawing some Halloween bunnies for my Cafepress shop.

When I’m drawing I start with a pencil sketch, then ink the drawing with a pen, then scan it and do some computer wizardry to trace the lines and remove the white background ready to colour (if I want to). Here is an example:

A rabbit popping out of a Halloween pumpkin, 1 - sketch, 2 - Inked, 3 Scanned

The scan is usually a closer copy of the original inked picture, but I was playing around with the settings and I liked it. This one is definitely Scamp influenced – I can see him thinking a Halloween pumpkin  is a perfect bunny toy. It would probably have a few more chew marks though!

These Halloween bunnies are more cartoony but they start the same way, sketched, inked & scanned:

I ended up colouring them in though, and here’s the end result:

The bunny in the middle reminds me of Scamp too – the cheeky grin, not that he has fangs!

Left: Free newspaper tunnel, right: £6.99 cardboard rabbit tunnel (chewed)

I’ve been experimenting with tunnels for Scamp, here is a really easy to make newspaper tunnel….

Step 1: Lay out a row of sheets of newspaper, overlapping each sheet by approximately a third. I used 4 sheets.

Step 2: Roll the paper around something round, such as a cake tin. I use a shop brought tunnel.

Step 3: Roll over the ends to stop the tunnel unravelling. Fold outwards, like turning up trousers. You only need to fold over about an inch, do it twice to keep it secure.

That’s it – you should have a rabbit tunnel, as demonstrated by Scamp:

"Do I have too?" "Okay, but I'm going to pull a funny face."

Of course, it’s easy to chew to pieces but it’s quick and free to make so shredding is just part of the fun. I used a local paper but if you pick something bigger like the telegraph you could get a lovely long tunnel.

"Hi, can I have treats now?"

Radio 4 had a brief section on rabbits on Friday, you can listen online here (rabbit section starts around 12 minutes in). They interviewed Brigitte Lord, a Lecturer in Rabbit Medicine and Surgery and Heather Childs, a rabbit breeder/shower.

Among other topics they discussed the social behaviour of rabbits. The difference in their points of view was quite wide!

Lord emphasised that rabbits are very social animals and that having a companion allowed them to partake in natural behaviour like mutual grooming and made them feel more safe as they could share look out duties. She stated that unless their owner was at home all day to be their companion, rabbits get very lonely and that she had experienced many behaviour problems in single rabbits because of this.

Childs, on the other hand stated “I will not sell two rabbits together under any circumstances, because at the end of the day I am frighten that at sexual maturity they will rip one and other apart.” She suggested that a teddy bear would be a better choice of companion.

I think it highlights how misunderstood rabbits still are. Although, I was shaking my head through the part about never keeping rabbits together, I can easily see how she came to that conclusion. If you put a same sex, adult rabbit into the pen of another they will, in general, “rip one and other apart”. I think many pet owners arrive at the same conclusion. It doesn’t mean rabbits don’t want social companions though, you just need to understand it from their point of view.

Within a group, rabbits form separate male and female hierarchies (pecking orders). If you pick two same sex rabbits you might be lucky and end up with two on opposite ends of the social ladder that are happy with their position and with a little pushing and shoving will get on just fine. Or, you may end up with two bunnies that will fight over who is top dog and rip one and other to shreds in the process. Rather than gambolling, the best option is to pick a male and a female because they naturally make love not war (yes I agree that is a bit corny). The overwhelming odds are that a neutered male and a neutered female (loved up bunnies is good but we don’t want babies) introduced somewhere neutral will get on great.

If you do choose same-sex rabbits neutering is a must. Having hormones that constantly drive them to compete over social rank and territory is not conducive to a stable relationship! It’s certainly possible to have rabbits of the same sex living together but it can be more tricky and you need to be on the look out for potential disputes. Hierarchy isn’t set in stone, reaching sexual maturity, a new territory or competition over food can all trigger a new argument over who is top dog. Neutering reduces the competitive urges but doesn’t remove it completely.

Neutral territory is the other important factor for successful introductions. Rabbits are ferociously defensive of their homes. But then, how would you react if a total stranger appeared in the middle of your living room? My first thought wouldn’t be “ooo look a potential new friend”. Rabbit’s feel the same way; a strange rabbit invading their space is going to be treated like the enemy, not a potential friend. They much prefer to meet potential companions in a neutral area like you might go out for a cup of coffee to get to know someone.

I wish pet shops were a bit more upfront about the pros and cons of potential matches. My very first bunnies were a pair of males, who went on to fight and had to be separated – that must be nearly 15 years ago and I still speak to owners that aren’t warned about potential future problems when their rabbits hormones kick in or even when they buy a new rabbit as a companion.

This lovely pile of carrot tops are from our local pick-your-own farm. My mum got them for free when she went to pick some tasty fruit. Our garden fruit supply is good for eat as you pick but not plentiful full enough to turn in to crumble and pie and all the other tasty things you can make with baskets full of fruit .

Many places discard parts of vegetables that rabbits like to eat. Things like carrot top, cauliflower leaves and sprout stalks. If you ask politely they are often kind enough to let you take a bag full, particularly if you are buying some of their produce too. Otherwise it’s just composted or worse thrown in to the general waste.

It made me think of all the other sources of free rabbit food. We’ve had free vegetable parts from both the local farm shop and market. Anyone got any other ideas?

By this time of year we’re on top of the weeding so there is a bit of a shortage of dandelions, thistles etc. to add to the bunnies diet. So I was thinking about what other plants we had they can eat and once I started adding it up there were quite a few (and our garden isn’t that big!).

I found:

• Apple
• Hazel
• Ginko
• Rose
• Raspberry
• Blackberry
• Strawberry
• Grape
• Nasturtium
• Sage
• Rosemary
• Basil

I did find a little bit of clover and a baby dandelion.

Then I wondered, which would they actually want to eat? Non toxic doesn’t necessarily mean tasty. So I gave Scamp a little bit of each to see which he’d go for first. Can you guess?

See if you got it right…

That’s a yumm to strawberry leaves, ginko, apple, clover and rose, then he decided the pile of grass from earlier was a better option and skipped off.

What’s your bunnies favourite and do you have any other plant ideas?